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Kyubey
"I want you to form a contract with me and become magical girls!" - Kyubey, Episode 1. is a who grants the wishes of young girls, but in exchange contracts their services as . Girls who form a contract with him are tasked to defeat Witches -- bizarre entities that feed upon the hopes and dreams of normal people. Kyubey features prominently as a character within the anime series of Madoka Magica. Appearance Kyubey is a small, cat-like creature, about two feet long (including tail). His entire body is covered in often clean, white fur. He has what appear to be four ears; two that resemble an average cat, pointed and up, while the other two appear as long tassel-like appendages that split into three sections at their tip. The tassels fade from white to pink and have three red dots horizontally before the splits. they also bear a pair of floating golden rings. Kyubeys face is his most well known feature; two beady pink eyes with ark maroon irises and a tiny, sigma-shaped "cat mouth". Due to Kyubey's method of telepathic communication, his face remains almost completely unmoving except for blinking and consuming food. This unmoving face is often a source of fan stigma involving Kyubey "staring into one's soul". On his back is an egg-shaped red oval. In episode 6, this oval flips up, like a trapdoor to act as a receptacle for grief seed fragments. In the anime, Kyubey has not been evidenced to bleed, however, when injured, he has red matter underneath his fur. When he is shot by Homura several times, Kyubey's body does not seem to contain organs, only solid red. Whether this is artistic censorship or an actual attribute of Kyubey's anatomy is yet unknown. In the anime, Kyubey's body often makes noises like a plush toy when squeezed or pressed against, suggesting that he is soft and cuddly, at least physically. In Oriko Magica, Kyubey takes on even more of a "plush toy" appearance than before. Now, his sharp tipped tassel ears are soft and curved, lacking the pink gradient and red spots. His magical hoops have moved further up his ears and his front legs appear to have shortened. *Kyubey's appearance (and name) share an affinity to Kyuubi, Mythical Japanese foxes with nine tails. In folklore, Kyuubi were known to possess men and have them do the Kyuubi's bidding, a trait identical to Kyubeys desire to collect energy from Puella Magi. Personality Kyubey is an Incubator/Messenger of Magic. Because of this, he, like his race, cannot exhibit emotions of any kind. As a result, Kyubey often appears cold, calculating and scheming; traits that make him appear villainous in the series. Kyubey, however, only seeks to achieve a goal; to preserve the universe from entropy. To meet this goal, he takes all means logically efficient and reasonable; namely creating Puella Magi. Initially, Kyubey appears enthusiastic to help the Puella Magi in their quest, offering advice where applicable, however, as more of his true motive is revealed, either by him or others, Kyubey becomes progressively more passive and observatory in manner (although this could be because he has no advice left to offer). Throughout the series, Kyubey is often accused of trickery and deceit by turning girls into Puella Magi, and subsequently witches, treating humans as energy livestock under the guise of being a miracle granter. Although this can easily be understood, Kyubey states that he never intended to "trick" Puella Magi, but simply leave out traumatizing subtext in order to make the process more appealing to a potential Puella Magi. Kyubey uses certain speech patterns that indicate he may see himself as superior to the magical girls; the lack of honorifics, the use of the pronouns "Boku" (僕) and "Kimi" (君) and the misuse or overall lack of polite verbs suggests that he is either rude or very casual towards the girls. However, due to his emotionless nature, and the fact that he is an alien, Kyubey may simply not understand the need to be polite, as opposed to being direct. Kyubey apparently enjoys hot baths and human food, as evidenced in the second episode of the anime. Synopsis Kyubey is an incubator, a member of an alien race dedicating their purpose towards counteracting the effects of (and possibly negating) Entropy; the principle that energy output is always less than energy input, a fact that is presently causing the universe to slowly die out. In order to achieve this, Kyubey collects raw energy from a source that seems to be excepted from entropy; the emotions of girls in their second growth stage (14-18). In order to harvest this energy, Kyubey forms contracts with these girls: the exchange of a wish for absolutely anything, for the servitude as a Puella Magi, magical girls who use their powers to defeat witches who then drop grief seeds. The energy produced during this process is then harvested by Kyubey through unknown means. Kyubey does not reveal, however, that Puella Magi turn into witches after falling into despair; witches that are then fought by other Puella Magi, creating an endless cycle. Because of this, Kyubey is often seen as the true antagonist of the series, despite the fact that his justification is that he is saving countless other sectors of the universe in doing so. Kyubey's goal in Madoka Magica is to turn Madoka into an incredibly powerful Puella magi, who will then destroy the Walpurgis Night and become the most powerful witch; the Kreimhild Gretchin, a process which apparently produces obscene amounts of energy, at the expense of the human race (as there would be no Puella Magi able to defeat the most powerful witch) Powers Kyubey has a wide variety of magical abilities which he uses in his mission to counteract entropy. They are listed below *'Telepathic communication' Kyubey communicates with Puella Magi and potential Puella Magi through telepathic communication, as opposed to verbal. Exposure to this apparently enables Puella Magi and potential Puella Magi to also communicate telepathically amongst each other when Kyubey is nearby. *'Invisibility' Kyubey is invisible to everyone except for Puella magi and candidates. Normal humans do not seem to notice his presence at all, just as he does not seem able to communicate with them. *'Teleportation' Kyubey has been evidenced to cross long distances in impossibly short time spans, the method for which is yet unknown, but can be assumed to be teleportation. In episode 10, he also fades into reality above Homura, which may be the visible manifestation of him teleporting. *'Wish granting' Kyubey can grant wishes of young girls, no matter how wild and unrealistic they may be, in the same manner a Genie would. Kyubey only allocates one wish per contract and it is unknown if this ability is contract bound or he is able to use it at will. *'Energy conversion/collection' Kyubey is able to collect energy from witch transformation and battles through an unseen means. In Timeline 6, he collects it by magical girls dropping grief seed fragments into a hatch-like "mouth" on his red oval on his back. How he is able to transport this energy also remains a mystery. *'Soul Gem Creation' Kyubey is capable of rending young girls souls from their bodies and placing them within small egg-shaped gemstones called soul gems. This makes the newly formed Puella Magi capable of transformation into their "magical girl form" as well as increased agility, strength and pain threshold, at the expense that the original body is simply turned into a puppet of the soul gem, and its feelings are numbed. Like with granting wishes, it is unknown if Kyubey can do this at will, or a contract must first be formed. *'Replication' After being killed, another identical Kyubey will appear nearby to consume the remains of his predecessor. This Kyubey appears to retain most, if not all the knowledge of the last after consuming the remains. This may suggest a "hive mind" or cloning process. It may also reference that "cats have nine lives", as Kyubey resembles a cat (Kyuubi, being nine-tailed foxes may also be a coincidental occurrence). *'Soul Gem Stimulation' As referenced in episode 7, Kyubey can create impulses of certain feelings on a soul gem simply by touching it. In Sayaka's case, he emulates a pike (probably mimicking Kyoko's) impaling Sayaka's stomach. Trivia *Kyubey's Name spelling is often a topic of argument amongst fans, the many various spellings in different texts have caused confusion as to its meaning **His name is written in both Hiragana and Katakana as キュ(kyu)ゥ(u)べ(be)え(e), so Kyuubee or Kyuubey would be most accurate as a romanization. **On the other hand, the fifth commercial has his name romanized as "Kyubey", which resulted in controversy. However, the lack of the extra u is probably just a use of the modified Hepburn system, which never accounts for extended vowels. **Gen Urobuchi joked that the "Kyu" comes from the katakana of the English word Cute so it could also be Cubey. **Episode 8 suggests that his name comes from 'Incubator', which would be romanized as 'inkyubeetaa.' In the same episode, it is revealed that he has multiple replacements. ***During Kyubey's dialogues in episode 9, he keeps saying "we", meaning that he isn't the only Incubator. **Some fans of 2ch have taken to assigning the kanji 「九兵衛」 (Kyūbē, lit. nine protector soldiers or nine warriors in defense) to his name, speculating that like Doraemon (whose name can be written as 「銅鑼衛門」), Kyubey's naming might have been inspired by old Samurai dramas. **'QB' is short for 'Kyubey' in Niconico Douga. This name is also common on 2ch. *Kyubey appears to be capable of teleportation. In episode 10, at the end of the first timeline, he appears to fade into reality above Homura. Category:Main Characters Category:Characters Category:Puella Magi Madoka Magica